"SANS!!!!!" an exuberant and wildly cheerful voice yelled. "GET YOUR LAZY BONES OUT OF BED THIS MINUTE! BREAKFAST IS READY!"

Sans sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. Well, his eye sockets, considering that he was a skeleton. Another very crucial fact: he was lazy to the bones. Yes. He is also a master of puns.

"Coming, Paps," he mumbled, forcing himself not to stay in bed and to get up. Today was an important day for Sans, and it forbade him from being lazy: it was his brother's birthday. It was going to be very hard, but he wouldn't even crack a single pun. (*insert le gasp*) Sans was surprised he wasn't melting from the high concentration of determination in him.

He was still rubbing them while he was making his way down the stairs. Papyrus stuck his head out of the kitchen doorway, and his eye sockets seemed to expand.

"WHAT IS THIS? SANS ACTUALLY CAME DOWN THE FIRST TIME I CALLED? THIS IS STRANGE. SANS, ARE YOU FEELING WELL?"

Sans smiled at his brother. "Yes, Paps. I was just trying to do something special for your birthday. It's today, remember?"

Papyrus's worried face turned into one of pure joy. "YES, I DO REMEMBER. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!"

Sans secretly counted down in his head the seconds until the smoke alarm turned on: 3, 2, 1...

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Right on cue, Sans thought, shaking his head in his head (if THAT made ANY sense). But instead of saying that aloud, he ran for the fire extinguisher. On the way to, he met Frisk, who was already rushing to the scene with it in hand. Sans guessed that they had woken up Papyrus this morning. They were always better at telling time than the Skelebros.

He sauntered into the kitchen to see the usual sight—a fiery, smoking pot of spaghetti being held by Paps and put out by Frisk. He smiled to himself. Today was gonna be a good day.

Then the pain came over him.

You know the boiling-the-frog trick? The one where you turn up the heat slowly so that the frog doesn't leave the pot, and doesn't realize what's wrong until it's already been boiled alive? Yeah, that one. That's what happened to Sans.

At first, it was just a mini-headache and a faint ringing in the...ear holes. (Sure, why not.) It was nothing too serious. Sans readily ignored it.

The ringing got a little louder and the headache more painful. But it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

This process continued, over and over again. Suddenly, the pain became so unbearable that he gasped and started shaking, falling to the floor. He saw Papyrus stop his birthday celebration and rush over to him, Frisk in tow. If he started screaming, he didn't know; he couldn't hear anything. It was just him and the pain.

~|~

He woke up in a void of white. He wildly looked around as if it would give him answers. Sadly, because a void is...you know...devoid of everything (hahaha I'm so funny), he found none at his disposal. He started panicking.

When he was able to discern his thoughts, he decided that checking his health would be crucial. He held his left arm out and said, "Check." When he saw his stats, he gasped. "Wh-what happened to me?!" he whispered.

His LV and EXP were the same—zero—but his HP was a little different. Instead of being 1/1, like it should have been, it was 7/89.

What? Sans thought to himself, his mouth agape. When did I get so much HP? I've never had THAT much... And speaking of, why is it so low?

A slight movement in the corner of his eye captured his attention. He turned to see...and he froze, having a feeling he had never really had before. It was stronger than fear. It only took a moment for him to label the unfamiliar emotion—gut-wrenching terror.

At the top, where his name was supposed to be, was glitching out. Sometimes it was his name, but he blinked and it glitched to read "Y/N." He had no idea who they were or why this was happening, but he was DETERMINED to find out. Then he heard a voice. "Hello, buttercup. It's nice to meet you." Sans looked around himself frantically, but once again, there was no one.

The voice started humming a friendly tune to itself. Unexpectedly, they broke out into singing. "I know you'll never find me pretty, but you gotta know: inside, I am beautiful."

Sans decided then that, even though the fact that the voice was there was creepy, he rather liked the voice. They weren't afraid to sing to themselves, so they couldn't be all bad. Right? Besides, the voice itself was pretty.

He heard a hissing sound, then labored breathing. "Ow," the voice muttered. "Why does helping things or people hurt so much?"

Suddenly, Sans saw the HP go to 1/90. He sucked his teeth in sympathy. Although he himself always had 1 HP, he knew that those with high HP going down to 1 meant that they were hurt...a lot. That meant...that the person the universe was confusing him with (because the universe always does that at the most convenient or inconvenient moments for no apparent reason) was probably dying. Immediately he was concerned, even if it was pointed toward someone he didn't even know.

The check beeped for a second, and he glanced at the HP. He was relieved for reasons unknown to himself that it changed to 30/90.

Then everything started going fuzzy, and he collapsed, only to wake up back in Snowdin, utterly confused if what he witnessed in the void was dream or reality.